The invention relates to network routing in a Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) system where users, for example, users at multiple locations, are enabled to share and transfer a CTI session.
Companies are deploying mobile employees and multiple shifts of employees. Mobile employees usually have laptops and/or handheld devices as their workstations and may also have a dedicated desk at the office. However, there are occasions where these employees will be at another company location and will plug into the network, using an available teleset. Employees are given the freedom to move about within the facilities and chose a desk to work from. At each desk are a network connection and a teleset. Some desks may have workstations for use. Other companies are deploying multiple shifts of employee that use the same physical workstations and telesets as the other shifts. These employees are usually assigned a workspace for their shift or they may select any open workspace.
To enable these different types of deployments, a clear need exists for a CTI (computer telephony integration) system that can support non-secure CTI enabled telesets for all of the call center agents independently of physical location and that can also support CTI users to share enabled telesets and to transparently pass a caller or issue from one to another agent.
The invention described herein relates to a system and method for CTI implemented xe2x80x9chotelling.xe2x80x9d Hotelling is the functionality of sharing CTI enabled telesets among multiple users. Users may be assigned to the telesets, or they may be sharing the same teleset, or the teleset may not be assigned to a particular person. Specifically, the invention provides a method and system where each agent or user has a unique login ID and password to access the CTI features from any known CTI enabled teleset. This enables a CTI user or agent to log in at any workstation in a network and utilize the system with the CTI enabled teleset, and also to transfer a CTI transaction or interaction to another CTI user or agent.
The method and system of the invention utilizes a computer telephony integration (CTI) system with a plurality of CTI-enabled telesets, each connected to an ACD or telephony switch which is connected to a CTI middleware server, and a plurality of workstations connected to the server. The system is configured so that each workstation and each teleset is identified to the server by a unique ID. This allows a user to log into the system with a user ID from any workstation and thereafter utilize computer telephony integration with a CTI enabled teleset. Additionally, a user can transfer a call, including the workstation screen information associated with the call, to another user at another workstation.
The CTI hotelling functionality also enables an agent to use any host (using their unique agent id) to login to the configuration. It also enables an administrator to use an administration tool to enable hotelling for a specific machine. If the machine is enabled for hotelling, the program will use the xe2x80x9chostnamexe2x80x9d to get the CTI configuration. If the machine is not enabled for hotelling, the program will use the agent default teleset to get the CTI configuration.